Doppelgängers, also known as Shadow Selves, are a supernatural occurrence that came as result of Silas and Amara becoming true immortals. Their purpose is to maintain the natural balance by dying in place of their immortal progenitors, and for this reason, doppelgängers have existed for 1,000 years being born and dying in their place.

Contents

Introduction of the Doppelgängers

It was first believed that doppelgängers are related to one another through a bloodline; however, it was later revealed that doppelgängers appear after the creation of a truly immortal being, and are a recurrent and mystical supernatural being. Because they're supernatural, their blood can be used as a binding agent for powerful spells, such as the spell that created the Originals. Because they have no actual supernatural powers, the only way that it has been confirmed that doppelgängers are supernatural was the fact that Elena killed Alaric while wearing a Gilbert Ring and he came back to life a short time later. This also confirmed Elijah's suspicion that the Gilbert Ring wouldn't work on Elena because she was technically a supernatural being. Though doppelgängers are supposed to represent mortality in the place of an otherwise immortal being, they can achieve immortality through vampirism, as was in the case of Katherine, Stefan, and Elena.

Creation

The phenomenon of the shadow-self occurs to counterbalance a disruption to nature's law that all living things must die. Qetsiyah, one of the most powerful witches and member of a very gifted people called the Travelers, created a spell for immortality with the intention that she and Silas would drink it together at their wedding. However, Silas stole the immortality elixir and used it on himself and his lover, Amara, so that the two could be together for eternity. Disrupting the balance of Nature when they became truly immortal, Nature created copies of Silas and Amara that could die to balance itself. With Silas and Amara now both dead, it is unknown if Nature will continue to spawn more doppelgängers.

History

Amara, Silas, and Qetsiyah, the "original" (and most tragic) love triangle of the series

Over two thousand years ago in ancient Greece, a young witch named Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah, also a fellow witch. Together, they were the most powerful members of a gifted people called the Travelers. Silas told Qetsiyah that he wanted their love to last forever, even beyond death, and he convinced her to create a spell that would make them immortal. On the night that their wedding ceremony was to take place, Silas absconded with the elixir Qetsiyah had created, and as Qetsiyah watched the plant life around her wither before her eyes, she knew that not only had Silas taken the elixir, he had also given her portion to someone else. She sought out Silas and found him in the wilderness with another woman – her handmaiden, Amara - who had taken Qetsiyah's share of the immortality elixir.

Silas, having left Amara alone, returned to their hiding place to find Qetsiyah crouching over the chalice that had held the elixir they were to drink at their wedding. He cautiously enquired after Qetsiyah's purpose for being there, so she explained that, to follow up her first gift of the immortality elixir, she had brought a second gift: the cure for immortality. Silas was dumbfounded, hardly believing her, but she insisted that it worked, as she had already used it on another immortal. Filled with dread, Silas ran into the tent he had shared with Amara, only to find blood soaked into every surface, as though someone had been brutally slaughtered there. Qetsiyah followed him into the tent and lifted a bloody human heart out of the chalice, admitting that she had slit Amara's throat before ripping her heart out. After Silas refused to take the cure and live the rest of his mortal life with Qetsiyah, she trapped him on a desolate island in an underground cave, where he desiccated for two thousand years, entombed with the cure.

One major consequence of Silas and Amara becoming immortal was the creation of two lines of shadows, or doppelgängers. Their immortality had violated nature's law that all living things must die, and so the doppelgängers came to exist as versions of Silas and Amara that can die. According to Qetsiyah, many identical replicas of Silas and Amara have been born over the centuries, finding each other time and time again as though drawn together by destiny.

Tatia was a descendent and a shadow of Amara. She lived in America during the 11th century as a contemporary of the Mikaelson family. Even though she had already had a child by another man, both Elijah and Klaus fell in love with her and fought each other for her affections. Seeking to end their feud, their mother, Esther, took her away. The brothers later learned that it was Tatia's blood that laced the wine they consumed the night their mother turned them into vampires. She was later killed by Elijah out of bloodlust.

The notion of the doppelgänger as a class of supernatural beings was introduced in the episode Rose by the character of the same name. Until that point, the term was used simply to describe Elena's uncanny resemblance to the vampire Katherine, but Rose explained that Elena is a "Petrova doppelgänger" and that she is one of the necessary components in a ritual to break the Sun and the Moon curse, which allegedly caused vampires to be ruled by the sun and werewolves to be ruled by the moon. Rose had originally tried to hand Elena over to Elijah, in an effort to earn back his and Klaus' favor, but after Elijah killed her friend Trevor, Rose decided to tell Elena and the Salvatores what she knew about Klaus. Rose's story was corroborated by Katherine, who told Elena about how Klaus had wanted to use her in the sacrifice five hundred years before, which involved his intention to "drain every single drop of blood" from her body.

In the episode Klaus, Elijah revealed to Elena that the Sun and the Moon curse was actually fake, and that the real curse was one that had been placed on Klaus to suppress his werewolf nature in order to keep him from becoming a true hybrid. He continued to explain that five hundred years ago, Klaus had intended to sacrifice Katerina in the ritual, but she thwarted him by turning herself into a vampire, thus rendering her blood and sacrifice useless – the doppelgänger had to be human for the ritual to break the curse.

In The Last Day, Elena surrendered herself to Klaus, and in The Sun Also Rises, after Jules the werewolf and Jenna the vampire had been sacrificed and their blood spilled over the moonstone by the witch Greta, Klaus drained Elena of her blood until she died, and thus successfully broke the Hybrid Curse.

Fortunately for Klaus, Elena actually survived the sacrifice, and, in The Reckoning, Klaus discovered from Esther (via Bonnie and Matt, who had contacted Vicki on the Other Side) that the blood of the human doppelgänger is required to create more hybrids like himself. After a werewolf drinks Klaus' blood and is killed, they must drink Elena's blood after they reawaken in order to complete the transition and become a hybrid.

Silas' Return and Qetsiyah's Resurrection

In the twenty-first century, a man named Atticus Shane set in motion a series of events that led to the releasing of the immortal Silas from his desiccated state in his tomb. Once he had regained his strength, Silas manipulated those around him to further his agenda: Bonnie was tasked with the creation of the Expression Triangle and destruction of the veil, while Klaus was forced to find the cure and return it to Silas. These things all occurred according to Silas' plan, to some extent – Bonnie completed the triangle and drops the veil, though only within the borders of Mystic Falls, while Silas gained possession of the cure – but Silas' plan went awry when Bonnie subdued him and turned him to stone, allowing Alaric to steal back the cure and give it to Damon.

Later, while trying to resurrect Jeremy, Bonnie died, and with her death, the spell desiccating Silas broke. When Stefan was about to dump Silas' body into the quarry, Silas appeared and revealed to Stefan his true form; Stefan was shocked to see that they look exactly alike, so Silas explained that Stefan is his shadow self, before locking Stefan in a safe and dropping it into the quarry.

Sometime during the period of time that the veil was down over Mystic Falls, Qetsiyah managed to resurrect herself from the Other Side in order to take matters into her own hands. After freeing Stefan and telling him her version of the story between her, Silas, and Amara, she used Stefan in a spell to link him to Silas, then fried his brain, which in turn deprived Silas of his mind control abilities.

The Doppelgänger Prophecy

Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore, the last living descendants of Amara and Silas

In Season Five, Qetsiyah explained that over the centuries, she witnessed the doppelgängers of Silas and Amara being drawn to one another, whether by fate, the universe, or some other mystical phenomenon. She surmised that she and Damon were merely obstacles in the doppelgängers' destined true love. Whether she had been deliberately giving misdirection or not, it was later revealed that this is not exactly what the prophecy foretold. Markos, the leader of the Travelers, explained to Damon that the prophecy regarding the doppelgängers was not about them being destined to fall in love; rather, there was a prophecy that the blood of the last two remaining doppelgängers could be used to undo spirit magic, and thus could remove the curse that the witches placed upon the Travelers. Markos had cast a spell 1,500 years ago that would draw the doppelgängers together, as the Travelers needed the doppelgängers to be in one place in order to use them to break the curse, so he used the lure of true love to make this happen. The Travelers tested this prophecy by using Stefan and Elena's blood to create a way to undo the spirit magic used to turn a human into a vampire. They turned Sloan into a vampire using Tyler Lockwood's blood, and then used the mixed doppelgänger blood to undo her vampirism. It worked, but Sloan is reverted to her last human state – that is, when she died from a slit throat. Having discovered that the prophecy is true, the Travelers then left to get more blood from Stefan and Elena to undo the witches' curse upon their people, which prevented them from settling in one place and reaching the full potential of their power.

Powers and Abilities

The blood of three doppelgängers forming a triquetra

Blood - Because they are mystical and recurrent, doppelgängers are a source of massive magical power.

The blood of a doppelgänger can be used to link supernatural beings to kinship with the help of magic conducted by any witch.

Their blood can also be used to bind a en extremely powerful curse or spell.

For some spells, the blood must come from a human doppelgänger. For other spells, the blood of a doppelgänger can still be used even if they've been turned into a vampire, as seen in Death and the Maiden when Qetsiyah used Elena's blood to transfer the Anchor from Amara to Bonnie. There are certain spells and uses that require the doppelgänger to be "pure" and human, however, like the undoing of the Hybrid Curse and the siring of hybrids.

Buckets of blood from the last pair of Doppelgängers

The blood of the last two "living" doppelgängers can be used to reverse spells cast using spirit magic (e.g. turning a vampire back into a [dead] human, undoing the spell that bound the Other Side, reversing the spells cast on daylight rings for vampires, etc).

Linking - Because doppelgängers are modelled after Immortals and other doppelgängers, they have an inherently strong mystical connection to each other that can be used to invoke Linking Spells.

The Progenitors Of Salvatore and Petrova Doppelgängers

Silas, the world's first immortal man or immortal being and the originator of the Salvatore doppelgängers.

Silas or Silvanus (Ancient Greek: Σίλας or Σιλουανός, Latin: Silvanus, Modern Greek: Silouanos) was born October 27, 1st century B.C., during the Biblical Times. His origins are from Ancient Greece. Silas was the world's very first immortal being and was the earliest known ancestor of the Salvatore family bloodline, as well as the progenitor of the Salvatore doppelgänger bloodline which spawned Stefan Salvatore and several others, and was also a very distant ancestor of the Salvatore Family. Before becoming an immortal, he was a very gifted and powerful warlock. Silas was deeply and passionately in love with his true love and soulmate; a young lady named Amara. Silas' love for Amara was so strong that his love for her was the major motivator behind him wanting to create the very first spell of immortality with the help of his best friend, who was also a powerful witch and also madly in love with Silas, Qetsiyah. Silas and Amara's love, even though powerful and strong, was also forbidden as Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah and Amara was the personal handmaiden of Qetsiyah. In order for Silas to get help to create the spell, Silas manipulated and convinced Qetsiyah that he loved her and wanted to spend an eternity with her. Out of love for Silas, she created the spell of immortality. The spell was to be consumed on Silas and Qetsiyah's wedding night. However, Silas did not intend to give immortality to Qetsiyah and wanted to give immortality to Amara instead so that Silas and Amara could spend eternity together. On Silas and Qetsiyah's wedding night, Silas stole the immortality elixir and made himself and Amara the world's first immortal beings. After Qetsiyah discovered that Silas had granted the gift of immortality to his true love Amara and not her, she supposedly cured Amara of her immortality and then brutally killed her out of jealous rage by slitting her throat and cutting out her heart. Silas was completely and utterly devastated. Qetsiyah then lured Silas to an isolated island and entombed him in darkness, leaving him to starve and desiccate for eternity. Buried with Silas was the cure for immortality, in which Qetsiyah created. Silas had two choices: either take the cure, die a mortal death and be on The Other Side, which is a purgatory meant for dead supernatural beings, with her for eternity or stay entombed in darkness and desiccate forever. Out of spite, anger and vengeance towards Qetsiyah murdering Amara, Silas chose to not take the cure and ended up staying entombed in darkness and starving for over 2,000 years. Because Silas refused to take the cure and die out of spite, Qetsiyah ended up creating the Other Side in order to trap Silas should he take the cure and die. Creating the Other Side would prevent Silas from finding eternal peace and being together in death with Amara on the earth's metaphysical plane, which is where human souls go after they die. Qetsiyah also created The Five, a group of supernatural hunters whose main goal and mission was to find Silas, cure him of his immortality and kill him, so that Silas would end up on the Other Side with Qetsiyah instead of with Amara as she wanted. After over 2,000 years of being entombed in darkness, Silas has risen and plans on wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. He is determined to join his true love Amara in death by getting Bonnie, who is a very distant descendant of Qetsiyah , to drop the veil so that he could take the cure and die a mortal death and cross over to be with Amara. It was revealed after 2,000 years that Qetsiyah had lied to Silas about Amara and had faked her death. Qetsiyah had actually desiccated and entombed Amara and then used her as the physical anchor for the Other Side spell in which Qetsiyah had created in order to trap Silas' soul shall Silas die a mortal death. Silas reunites with Amara after she is re-awakened, Qetsiyah having lied about her death. Amara tells Silas that she loves him and that she is sorry. She then stabs Silas in the neck in order to obtain the cure for immortality which is running through Silas' veins as she doesn't wish to live anymore. Silas still intends on destroying the Other Side so that he could be with Amara in peace in true eternal death. Silas and Amara reunite once more and Amara begs Silas to kill her so that her suffering can end for good and she can find peace. Amara tells Silas that she loves him and that she will always love him but that she cannot live for another day and wants to end her suffering. Silas tells Amara that he understands. Amara stabs herself and dies, crossing over to the metaphysical plane where humans go to after they die. Afterwards, Silas is stabbed by Stefan, his doppelgänger and descendant, and he dies. Unfortunately, Silas dies before he ever had a chance to destroy the Other Side. Silas ends up crossing over to the Other Side, which means that he is separated from Amara forever. To make matters worse and more tragic, Qetsiyah ends up killing herself after transferring the anchor from Amara to Bonnie. Qetsiyah crosses over to the Other Side, where Silas is stuck with her for all eternity. This means that Qetsiyah got her 2,000 year old wish; Silas being stuck with her on the Other Side and beinf separated from his soulmate for all time and for all eternity. When Silas made himself truly immortal, he created an imbalance in nature and nature needed a loophole, a version or versions of Silas that could die. Therefore, shadow selves, doppelgängers or a doppelgänger bloodline of Silas was created in order to maintain the balance of nature. Silas was a distant ancestor to the Salvatore family.

Amara, the world's first immortal woman and the originator of the Petrova doppelgängers

Amara (Ancient Greek: Αμάρα, Latin: Amarantha) was born June 27, 1st century B.C., during the Biblical Times. Her origins are from Ancient Greece. She is the oldest known ancestor of the Petrova family bloodline. Personality wise, Amara comes off as gentle, docile, and innocent, similar to that of Katherine before she became evil. Her age is unknown but it could be assumed that she was anywhere between fourteen to eighteen years old. As a human, she was the handmaiden to Qetsiyah, a very powerful witch. Amara fell deeply and passionately in love with a young, gifted and powerful warlock named Silas. Amara's love for Silas was so strong that she desired to be with him forever. However, her love for Silas was also strongly forbidden as Silas was engaged to be married to Qetsiyah. Therefore, Silas and Amara had a secret relationship. Silas also strongly loved Amara, so much that he desired immortality so that he and Amara could be together for eternity. Silas manipulated Qetsiyah into creating the spell of immortality with the intention of sharing the gift of eternal life with Amara, instead of Qetsiyah. However, after betraying Qetsiyah's trust after she created the spell, Qetsiyah became filled with anger and rage and she wanted revenge. After Silas and Amara drank the immortality elixir, Qetsiyah found the latter by faking her death and forced her to become the phyiscal Anchor to The Other Side, binding it's existence to her immortal life and desiccating her. After her awakening two thousand years later, the pain of her existence was too much to bear and she wished to die. She consumed the Cure in order to become mortal again. Amara reunites with Silas after 2,000 years of being apart from him adn she confesses her undying love for him but says that although she loves Silas, she desires to die just as much. Amara then asks Silas to kill her and end her 2,000 years of suffering. Silas is hesitant to do so at first but he then understands. Unexpectedly, Silas is killed by Stefan after he is stabbed with a blade. Silas passes through Amara as she was still currently the anchor before Qetsiyah had transferred the spell and made Bonnie the anchor instead. Amara, realizing that she has officially nothing to live for now that her beloved is dead and she has endured endless suffering for centuries and centuries, tells a dead Silas that their eternity together would start with her death. She then takes the same knife that killed Silas and stabs herself, killing her and ending her endless suffering. She is presumed to have found peace and has passed on to the afterlife where human souls go to once theyr die. Unfortunately for Amara, she did not get her dying wish which was to be reunited with Silas in true death as Silas ended up stuck on The Other Side with Qetsiyah, who ended up killing herself to be with Silas. It is currently unknown whether or not Amara reunited with Silas and found happiness in death with her true love after the Other Side deteriorated since Silas was seen being sucked into oblivion.}}

Known Doppelgängers

Amara's Doppelgängers

Amara's known doppelgängers are Tatia, Katherine and Elena, all three of which have appeared on-screen. Elena is sometimes referred to as the Petrova doppelgänger because of her striking resemblance to Katerina Petrova.

Tatia was born during the 10th century A.D. in the area where Mystic Falls was to be formed. She was a contemporary of the Mikaelson Family around the early 10th century. During the Middle Ages, Tatia had a child with an unknown man; later in time, she met Elijah and Niklaus Mikaelson, both of whom fell in love with her (especially Klaus, according to Elijah). Esther, the mother of Elijah and Niklaus and also the Original witch, used Tatia's blood in the spell or ritual to create the Original Vampires, as part of the wine laced with blood in which Mikael had given his children. Her blood was also part of the spell Esther used to bind Klaus' werewolf side, which resulted in Klaus' werewolf gene being dormant.

Katerina Petrova (a.k.a. Katherine Pierce) was born in Bulgaria during the 15th century on June 5th, 1473. In the year 1492, when she was still a human, she was captured by Klaus. She knew that she was going to die, so she tricked Trevor, one of Klaus' servants, into helping her escape. Katherine was clever, cunning and smart; she knew that if she became a vampire, she'd be rendered useless to Klaus. Katherine stabbed herself with a knife but was given vampire blood by Rose in an attempt to heal her stabbing wound and afterwards, Katherine hung herself and came back as a vampire. In return for her escape, Klaus made her suffer by killing her entire family in Bulgaria, thinking that the doppelgänger would never appear again. What Klaus didn't know was that Katherine had a child out of wedlock that was kept secret and this child continued the bloodline of the Petrova family, leading to the birth of Elena Gilbert. Tired from running, Katherine intended to make a deal with Klaus by giving him the ingredients he needed to break the curse in exchange for her freedom. She planned to hand over the moonstone, Elena Gilbert, Caroline Forbes (a vampire), Tyler Lockwood (a werewolf) and Bonnie Bennett (a witch). When Katherine was about to take out her own doppelgänger, Elena shoves the cure, into her mouth. She is the doppelgänger of Tatia and her doppelgänger is Elena Gilbert.

Elena is the 3rd doppelgänger of Amara. She is the last living Petrova doppelgänger.

Elena Gilbert was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia during the 20th century on June 22nd, 1992. Elijah was the first one who found out about Elena before Klaus. At first, when Rose told Elijah about this, he didn't believe it. But soon enough he found out that the Petrova family line didn't end with Katherine because she had given birth to a baby girl, thus continuing the Petrova bloodline. Once Klaus learned of the Petrova doppelgänger, Elena, he came to Mystic Falls, and he kidnapped Katherine, temporarily taking over the body of Alaric Saltzman. As with Katherine, Klaus is responsible for the death of Elena's family, most notably their aunt Jenna Sommers, Elena and Jeremy's legal guardian. He terned Jenna into a vampire and killed her for the sacrificial ritual. Unlike with Katherine, Klaus successfully killed Elena and as a result, he breaks the curse. Fortunately for Elena, John Gilbert had Bonnie form a special spell that bound Elena's life force or essence to his. This spell brought Elena back to life, but in return, killed John and took his life. In The Departed, Jeremy took Elena to Mystic Falls Hospital after discovering her lying unconscious at home. Meredith Fell discovered Elena was suffering from a serious cerebral hemorrhage and secretly injected her with vampire blood to heal her. This action fortunately saved Elena from death. The same day, Rebekah ran Elena and Matt off Wickery Bridge to save her siblings from Alaric, since his life force was tied to Elena. That way, if she died, so would Alaric. Jeremy arrives home to see Alaric, and he talks to him and Jeremy realizes that he is a ghost, and that if he is dead, that means his sister, Elena, must also be dead. Stefan hurried to Wickery Bridge, intending to save Elena, but she insisted that he save Matt's life instead, who was unresponsive after crashing into the water. By the time Stefan pulled Matt out of the water, Elena had drowned and died. Stefan brought her body back to Mystic Falls Hospital, where she woke up, transitioning into a vampire with Damon's blood in her system. She is the last of Amara's doppelgängers and being a vampire the line ends with her.

Silas' Doppelgängers

Compared to the Petrova Doppelgängers, the Salvatore Doppelgänger do not seem to be as recognized, since Klaus and Rebekah seemed to have failed at recognizing Stefan for what he was during the early 20th Century, other than an emotionless Vampire at the time.

Stefan is 3rd doppelgänger of Silas. Stefan is the last living Salvatore doppelgänger.

Stefan Salvatore was born in Mystic Falls, Virginia during the 19th century on November 1ST, 1846. He was turned into a vampire along with his older brother Damon in the year 1864 by Amara's distant descendant, Katherine Pierce. Like his ancient ancestor Silas, Stefan was involved in a love triangle with Katherine and Damon. Stefan was unaware of the fact that he was a doppelgänger during his human years, and had no idea Katherine herself was a doppelgänger. Stefan was turned into a vampire against his will; Katherine had been compelling Stefan to consume her vampire blood for weeks. When Katherine is captured by the Founders Council Members, Stefan and Damon plot to rescue Katherine from being burned in a church by fire. Although Stefan and Damon do end up rescuing Katherine, Stefan and Damon are both shot dead by their own father Giuseppe. It was then that Stefan transformed into a vampire. When he first transitioned, Stefan suffered from severe hunger for blood and therefore, had problems controlling himself around human blood. Regarding the bloodline of Silas, not too much is known about it, its background and its history. Qetsiyah mentioned to Stefan that she has seen doppelgängers of Silas preceding Stefan while watching from The Other Side.

Tom Avery was born during the 20th century. He was a doppelgänger of Silas who is discovered in the episode While You Were Sleeping. He is a paramedic who resides in Atlanta, Georgia. In Rescue Me, it is revealed that he was kidnapped by a witch named Hazel and put in a comatose state under a cloaking spell in order to protect him from The Travelers. He is later found by Caroline and Enzo. Caroline snaps Enzo's neck in order to prevent him from killing Tom. Caroline then takes Tom to a diner and compels him to tell her about his life. Confirming he is a good person, she compels him to run, far from the Travelers and Enzo. Before he can leave, however, Enzo catches up to them and snaps Tom's neck, killing him and making Stefan the last living doppelgänger of Silas.

Doppelgänger Lines

Myths

In some traditions, when a doppelgänger is seen by a person's friends or relatives, the contact prophesies illness or danger, while a person seeing their own doppelgänger is an omen of death.

In other traditions or legends, a doppelgänger is connected with the person copied; sometimes causing the feelings of injuries between the original and the doppelgänger. For example, if the doppelgänger is injured, the other person will also be hurt or feel pain.

"Doppelgänger" is a German word or term meaning "double walker" or "double goer"―a shadow self that is thought to accompany every person. Traditionally, it is said that only the owner of the doppelgänger can see this phantom self and that it can be a harbinger of death. Occasionally, however, a doppelgänger can be seen by a person's friends or family, resulting in quite a bit of confusion.

The word doppelgänger is a loanword from German, written there (as any noun) with an initial capital letter Doppelganger, composed from doppel, meaning "double", and gänger, as "walker." In English, the word is conventionally not capitalized, and it is also common to drop the German diacritic umlaut on the letter "a" and write "doppelganger," although the correct spelling without umlaut would be "doppelgaenger".

The term has, in the vernacular, come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person, most commonly in reference to a so-called evil twin, or to bilocation. Alternatively, the word is used to describe a phenomenon where you catch your own image out of the corner of your eye. In some traditions, seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. A doppelgänger seen by friends or relatives of a person may sometimes bring bad luck, or indicate an approaching illness or health problem.

The doppelgängers of folklore cast no shadow, and have no reflection in a mirror or in water. They are supposed to provide advice to the person they shadow, but this advice can be misleading or malicious. They can also, in rare instances, plant ideas in their victim's mind or appear before friends and relatives, causing confusion. In many cases once someone has viewed his own doppelgänger, he is doomed to be haunted by images of his ghostly counter-part.

Other folklore says that it is considered unlucky to try to communicate with a doppelgänger.

Trivia

Silas and Amara's doppelgängers may not be limited to a continuous 500 years recurrence as it has been speculated since Season Two: Qetsiyah said in Original Sin that "century after century" she watched versions of Stefan and Elena find each other and fall in love-- this could mean that Klaus only presumed the time period between the Petrova Doppelgängers because it took him that long to find one after losing Katherine. But Qetsiyah's statement could be interpreted as just being hyperbolic.

According to Qetsiyah, the shadows of Silas and Amara are destined to find each other and fall in love, based on her observations throughout the centuries. However, evidently, they are also capable of developing romantic feelings for other people. Examples include:

Qetsiyah has, in one instance, mentioned Silas as Stefan's doppelgänger.

Silas himself referred to Amara as Elena's doppelgänger.

Silas and Stefan can be called doppelgängers of each other. Similarly, Tatia, Katherine, Elena and Amara are all doppelgängers of each other since they are all lookalikes of each other.

The term "Shadow" has some implied hierarchy as opposed to doppelgänger.

Katherine referred to Elena as her shadow self and Silas did the same to Stefan.

Elena is the shadow of Amara, Tatia and Katherine, while Katherine is that only of Amara and Tatia.

Doppelgängers are humans for most intents and purposes. However, they are a supernatural occurrence and are therefore, considered to be a supernatural species. The difference between regular humans and doppelgängers is that spells that use a doppelgänger can be broken using another doppelgänger.

Death by a doppelgänger counts as a supernatural death. A person wearing a Gilbert ring will come back to life if killed by a human doppelgänger.

The Gilbert rings do not protect supernatural creatures and is, thus, theorized not to work on a doppelgänger. This has never been confirmed.

They can, however, be compelled by vampires like any regular human.

It seems that the men who spend a lot of time with doppelgängers of Amara can't help but fall in love with her or fall vulnerable to her charms. Back in the 11th century, it was stated that every man in the village fell in love with Tatia, though Elijah and Klaus more than any others. Trevor, Elijah, Damon, Stefan and Mason fell in love with Katherine, and Noah was obsessed with her. Matt, Stefan, and Damon fell in love with Elena.

Similarly, it seems that many women also fall madly for Salvatore Doppelgängers, almost to psychotic and crazy proportions. An example is Elena, Bonnie, Caroline, Katherine, Qetsiyah and Rebekah all finding Stefan appealing and all of them being attracted to him. It could easily be assumed that Silas was also very attractive to the opposite sex as well, since he had two women who were passionately (and one psychotically) in love with him in Qetsiyah and Amara.

Katherine and Elena both became vampires, though Katherine was cured of her vampirism and returned back to a human/witch before eventually dying of old age.

Silas and his doppelgänger, Stefan, have first names beginning with the letter "S". It is unknown if other doppelgängers of Silas also had names beginning with the letter S.

Tom Avery, the assumed fifth and final doppelgänger of Silas, seems to break this tradition, as his name begins with the letter T.

All of the known shadows of Amara, like herself, have first names that rhyme with each other. All of the known Petrova doppelgängers, including the progenitor Amara, all have first names which end with an "A" (AmarA, TatiA, KaterinA, ElenA).

A person and his or her doppelgänger will look identical in appearance, but the differences stem from their rearing and community standards (such as their expressions, speech, reason, and connections with others).

According to some myths, doppelgängers tend to undo the lives of each other. Tatia was used to create the Original Vampires but her doppelgängers have influenced the deaths of all three deceased Original Vampires.

Katherine distracted Mikael, which let Klaus have a shot at his heart.

Elena shot Finn with a crossbow to disable him for a few moments before Matt killed him.

Elena held down Kol, after weakening him with vervain, thus allowing Jeremy to kill him.

Now that Stefan has been revealed to be a doppelgänger of Silas, in retrospect, it seems more than just a mere coincidence that Stefan too influenced the deaths of the three Original Vampires.

Stefan intervened when Damon tried to take a shot at Klaus which led to the death of Mikael.

Stefan took the first shot at Finn and was disarmed immediately by Sage. In his process of recovering the stake, Elena shot Finn with the crossbow.

Stefan spent an entire evening trying to obtain the dagger from Rebekah which, at the very least kept her at bay, while Elena and Jeremy went about killing Kol.

On more than one occasion, Katherine has actively harmed her doppelgänger Elena. Silas made his doppelgänger, Stefan, suffer for a whole summer by stabbing him, locking him in a safe and throwing the safe off a cliff into the water under a quarry, where Stefan would drown repeatedly and die over and over for three months.

The very danger, of being prematurely undone by his doppelgänger, is probably why Silas locked Stefan in the safe and left him to drown repeatedly - he might have wanted to keep Stefan out of the way for as long as he remains immortal. As it turns out, Stefan's release from the safe allowed Qetsiyah to neutralise Silas' mental powers.

The term "Petrova Doppelgänger" comes from the last name of Katherine Petrova, the second doppelgänger of Amara. It is a term used by those who strived to find Katherine's doppelgänger and once discovered, directly referred only to Elena.

Qetsiyah has said that the Silas' and Amara's doppelgängers have been finding each other and falling in love century after century. This could possibly imply that before the 10th century, when Tatia, the second doppelgänger of Amara, was used by Esther to make the Mikaelson family vampires and was also used to suppress Klaus' werewolf side, there were possibly Petrova doppelgängers being born every century or every few centuries, since Qetsiyah said that they fall in love century after century, not every 500 years. However, it's also possible that Qetsiyah was just being hyperbolic to emphasize her annoyance at watching Silas and Amara's shadows constantly falling in love over the last 2,000 years.

It is uncertain whether or not the doppelgängers of Silas are born every 500 years like the last three doppelgängers of Amara have. It is also uncertain if Petrova doppelgängers being born every 500 years theory is actually true.

It is possible that the doppelgängers were finding each other and falling in love on The Other Side. Doppelgängers are known to be supernatural beings and hence, would go to The Other Side when they die. This could possibly be what Qetsiyah meant when she said she has watched versions of Silas and Amara find each other and fall in love century after century; she could have been watching them find each other and fall in love on the Other Side. However, with the destruction of the Other Side, this is presumably no longer possible.

Doppelgängers can be born or the doppelgänger "gene" can be passed down the bloodline without the doppelgänger himself/herself having children or a direct bloodline due to having children. For example, Silas and Amara, the progenitors of the Salvatore and Petrova doppelgänger bloodlines respectively, were assumed to not have had any children before they became truly immortal. Therefore, it is very likely that they had a sibling(s) which would have passed down the doppelgänger "gene" through Silas and Amara's respective bloodlines. So, doppelgängers would not need to have children in order for the doppelgänger "gene" to be passed down the bloodline. It should be noted that all of the known Petrova doppelgängers (i.e. Tatia and Katherine), with the exception of Elena due to becoming a vampire, have had children. It could be assumed that Silas' doppelgängers all had children as well, with the exception of Stefan, since he became a vampire and therefore, could not reproduce.

The two known doppelgänger lines are, both, the result of the Immortality Spell being cast. It is possible that other spells (such as the Hybrid Curse while it was active) may also produce doppelgängers depending on their nature.

As of fifth season of The Vampire Diaries, both Amara and Silas had become mortal and died. Theoretically, being cured of immortality and their deaths means the end of their doppelgänger lines, as nature would no longer require their shadow selves to die in their places.

Since Tom Avery was born in the 20th century chances are is that he was meant for Elena, had she not met Stefan. If the prophecy held truth, then that means that Stefan may have never been meant to meet neither Katherine or Elena, nor fall in love with them. Katherine may have had another Salvatore doppelgänger that was meant for her, and Stefan could have had a different Petrova Doppelgänger that was meant for himself, IF, of course, the prophecy meant that two doppelgängers were born in the same century and were meant fall in love with each other.

It was revealed that the reason why the Travelers want the blood of the doppelgängers was because they wanted to break the curse that was placed on them by Luke and Liv's coven 2,000 years ago.

Qetsiyah's belief that the shadows of Silas and Amara were destined to find each other and fall in love was proven to be incorrect; it was revealed that the reason why the Salvatore and Petrova doppelgängers find each other is because of the spell that was placed on them by Markos 1,500 years earlier to obtain doppelgänger blood. The Salvatore and Petrova doppelgängers fell in love on their own throughout the centuries.

It was coincidental how Amara was the handmaiden of Qestiyah in 100 BC, while in the 19th century, Qestiyah's descendant Emily Bennett was the handmaiden of Amara's doppelgänger and descendant, Katherine. Another one of Qetsiyah's descendants, Bonnie Bennett, was best friends with Petrova doppelgänger Elena Gilbert, showing a pattern of Qetsiyah's descendants being involved in some way with Amara's doppelgängers. Likewise to this, Ayana was a witch, and one of Qetsiyah's descendants, that lived in the same 'New World' village as Tatia.

According to this interview and the synposis for Red Door, Tatia was Amara's first doppelgänger. Julie Plec and Nina Dobrev have stated that Tatia is the original original/very first Doppelgänger. There are no Doppelgängers BEFORE Tatia. “She’s the very first doppelgänger so she doesn’t have the history of all the other doppelgängers behind her. She is the purest of them all, she’s the most unaffected, she’s the most regular almost like how Elena was before all this shit happened, but it definitely catches up to her as any character on this show affected by all these supernatural beings [are]. It doesn’t really go well for her. It’s all about love and happiness until everything goes wrong.” — Nina Dobrev talking about Tatia.